1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device that removably attaches to a garment hook or a passenger grab bar within a vehicle, such that clothes on a hanger can be supported from the device.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Many people want to take clothes with them when traveling by vehicle. A person may want to take a business suit in the vehicle to change into after a workout at the gym or take more formal clothes for a social function after work when there is not enough time to go home and change. Such situations tend not to be problematic as the person simply places the desired clothes onto a hanger and the hanger is hung from the hook located in the vehicle for such purpose, typically in the back seat area of the passenger compartment, or absent such a hook, from the passenger grab bar. When the clothing is desired, the hanger is removed from the hook or grab bar and the job is finished.
Problems arise when multiple items of clothing need to be transported, such as when a person is going on a weekend getaway and does not want to fold his or her clothes into a suitcase or on the back seat or a person is simply picking up multiple freshly cleaned and pressed items from the dry cleaners. Typically the hook can support one or at best two hangers which may prove too little capacity for a person with multiple items of clothing on hangers. While a grab bar may support more than a couple of hangers, placement of multiple items of clothing on multiple hangers onto a grab bar tends to scrunch the clothing items together, often wrinkling them so that the clothing items do not fare any better than being laid on the back seat of the vehicle.
One way to overcome this problem is the use of a hanger rod that stretches between the interior sides of the vehicle, the hanger rod being a tension bar that is supported against the sides of the vehicle via the biasing of the hanger bar's internal springs. The hanger bar is capable of carrying a substantial number of clothing items allowing the items to remain separated during the journey so as to reduce the risk of wrinkling and folding of the items. While effective, the hanger bar is not without problems. One problem with the hanger bar is that depending on the slope of the interior side wall of the vehicle, the tension bar may not get a sufficient grip on the side walls and be prone to slippage, especially if the clothing load is large. Additionally, many drivers simply get distracted by a bar that is positioned across the rear window of the vehicle. Further, depending on the architecture of the vehicle, the hanger bar must be positioned so as to leave no room for rear seat passengers.
To address these hanger bar problems, devices have been proposed that are located on one side of the vehicle and extend out a relatively short distance from the side wall (which includes the lower section of the roof line), which distance is sufficient to be able to hold sufficient clothing items for most people's needs. As such devices only protrude a short distance from a vehicle's interior side wall, they tend to not unduly distract the driver of the vehicle and do not rob back seat passengers of their seating real estate.
However, these prior art devices also have their shortcomings. Many of the devices are relatively complex in design and construction so as to be cost-prohibitive to produce so as to be economically unattractive to the average consumer. Some devices require elaborate installation, often with the attendant requirement of the need to make a permanent alteration to the vehicle, which many vehicle owners are unwilling to undertake. Still some devices have only a single point of support, that being at the attachment of the device to the vehicle hook, so that relatively heavy clothing loads cannot be supported by such devices.
What is needed is a device that allows a person to be able to hang multiple clothing items, separated from one another, within a vehicle, which device overcomes the above stated shortcoming found in the art. Specifically, such a device must not stretch across the entire vehicle passenger compartment so as to not be distractive to the driver of the vehicle and so as to not prevent passengers from occupying the back seat of the vehicle. Such a device must be relatively simple in design and construction and must be easy to install into and remove from the vehicle without the need to make permanent alterations to the vehicle. The device must be able to support a relatively heavy clothing load.